1. Call it the John McCain bump: Even though it opened in extremely limited release yesterday, Zero Dark Thirty is already breaking box office records. [via Deadline]
2. This photo from the set of 30 Rock is giving us mixed emotions. On one hand, we’re devastated that the show is really ending. On the other: 30 Rock wine?! … Read More
1. “When you see a merger between two giants in a declining industry, it can look like the financial version of a couple having a baby to save a marriage.” — In the wake of the announced Penguin-Random House merger, The New York Times writes about the death of the publishing industry. Again.… Read More
Hitting theaters tomorrow, the new Will Ferrell/Zach Galifianakis vehicle The Campaign is funny, very funny, filled with ingenious set pieces and inspired characterizations by its marquee leads and a gifted supporting cast — and that’s what most of those who see it care about. It is a broad, goofy farce that earns its R-rating with a vast array of sexual and scatological material, but in spite of the crassness we tend to associate with those gags, The Campaign is one of the year’s smartest films, using its vulgarity for cover while smuggling in the kind of piercing and penetrating social commentary seldom seen in a major studio release. It’s a sly, timely, spot-on political satire — in a sniggering dick-joke comedy’s clothing. … Read More
Last night, Will Ferrell donned his burgundy suit, pasted on the familiar mustache, and dropped in on Conan O’Brien’s TBS show to play a little jazz flute, insult the host, and make an announcement: “As of 0900 Mountain Time, Paramount Pictures and myself, Ronald Joseph Aaron Burgundy, have come to terms on a sequel to Anchorman.” Ferrell’s announcement was greeted with cheers in the studio and equally enthusiastic response on the Internet, where the long-gestating project had been presumed dead for a good couple of years. After the jump, we’ll take a look at Anchorman 2‘s long journey to fruition. … Read More
Today at Flavorpill, we liked Vulture’s checklist of things that you’re sure to find in any wedding comedy. We wished that we had dance moves half as good as the First Lady’s version of the Running Man. We got excited about all of the new books coming out out… Read More
If Will Ferrell decided to publish a book, what kind of book would it be? That’s what we’re asking ourselves in the wake of news that Funny or Die, the humor website founded by comedians Will Ferrell and Adam McKay back in 2007, plans to launch a book publishing imprint called Funny or… Read More
Another Will Ferrell/Adam McKay collaboration is on the horizon, the duo moving on from lampooning news anchors and NASCAR drivers to a new buddy-cop flick The Other Guys. In the past it was Ferrell’s gleeful idiocy and braggadocio that made characters like Ron Burgundy so quotable; here, he’s relegated as the bespectacled straight man to Mark Wahlberg’s peacock-imitating alpha male. … Read More
“You know when I first read this song I asked ‘Did Dylan, Taupin and Angelou really write this.’ And they said sort of. And I said what does that mean? And then they ran away. But after five bottles of wine I knew who the real writer of this song was….. the big man himself, God Almighty.”
- This is the “talk part” from the hilarious song that Adam McKay and Will Ferrell wrote after being asked to perform on last night’s American Idol finale. (Full lyrics here.) According to McKay, “We wrote a song and they said yes. Then I think they took a beat and actually read what we wanted to do and the plug was pulled. But we got pretty far down the road.”
Just to put this in perspective: American Idol producers put viewers through a seized up Cyndi Lauper, Queen Latifah in a onesie, and Rod Stewart on his deathbed, but you couldn’t deliver us someone who was actually trying to be funny? Thanks. [via… Read More
“Since FDR’s New Deal, corporations and wealthy families have been non-stop finding new ways to get tax breaks, deregulation and entitlements from the government. The crush of lobbyists on Washington and purchase of the media by corporations has created a big business-run government and a worthless press leaving Americans screwed and ill-informed. The end.”
Last night we met Kenny Powers of HBO’s latest comedy series Eastbound & Down, played by scene-stealer Danny McBride of Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder fame. [Editor's note: We love him the most in the 2003 indie, All The Real Girls, and we'd argue that he's the only thing that makes Pineapple Express bearable.] Kenny is a man with a dream. At age 9, he knew he was going to be a Major Leaguer. With a foulmouthed catchphrase (“You’re F**king Out“), he was set for a life as baseball’s worst hero. … Read More
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